Seems the GTX470 sits right between the HD5870 and HD5850 in performance price and of course performance/price.

Just as I have been saying, the GTX470 is the Fermi card that we should all be looking at, because the GTX480 was just pushed to the limits to beat the HD5870. The GTX470 is far more reasonable. And I still think driver updates should fix the higher resolution performance.

I still think I'd go with the HD5850 if I was upgrading to this generation though.

Excellent review as always - good to see the card being price competetive but i wish they could get the heat and noise levels down to make it more comparable with the 5850 and 5870 for heat/power/noise levels.

Yeah this card is much more power efficient and lowers consumption to reasonable levels.

However, I noticed that power doesn't seem to scale linearly. The GTX 480 has 7% more shaders, more ram, and slightly higher clocks, and a lower core voltage, which may equalize the other stuff. But when you look at power consumption, the GTX 480 uses way more than 7% more power. In fact it's not even close to 7%. So clearly, either adding 7% more hardware increases power by more than 7%, or there's another variable here.

Also, how is the power consumption of the OC'ed 470? If it's under the consumption of the GTX 480, than an overclocked GTX 470 would be much more efficient than a GTX 480. (which is what I'm guessing) And if that's true, why did Nvidia release a 480 shader part?

YThe GTX 480 has 7% more shaders, more ram, and slightly higher clocks, and a lower core voltage, which may equalize the other stuff. But when you look at power consumption, the GTX 480 uses way more than 7% more power. In fact it's not even close to 7%. So clearly, either adding 7% more hardware increases power by more than 7%, or there's another variable here.

Also, how is the power consumption of the OC'ed 470? If it's under the consumption of the GTX 480, than an overclocked GTX 470 would be much more efficient than a GTX 480. (which is what I'm guessing) And if that's true, why did Nvidia release a 480 shader part?

Seems the GTX470 sits right between the HD5870 and HD5850 in performance price and of course performance/price.

Just as I have been saying, the GTX470 is the Fermi card that we should all be looking at, because the GTX480 was just pushed to the limits to beat the HD5870. The GTX470 is far more reasonable. And I still think driver updates should fix the higher resolution performance.

I still think I'd go with the HD5850 if I was upgrading to this generation though.

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I agree looks much more reasonable than the 480 but the 5850 still seems to be the ticket unless you just have to have a Nvidia card.

Hmm, the GTX470 sits directly between the 5870 and 5850, and is priced right in between both. I still think 5850 is a better buy, being almost $100 less than 5870 and almost just as powerful. I would have doubts about 91 degrees being a safe temp all the time, but if W1zzard thinks its allright, then I guess it will be fine for most people not too paranoid about temps.

well its a nice review wizzard ..but must say that i would take the 5870 over all price/performance..these are norwegian prices=
red --sapphire 5870 1gb= 492dollar-- green --asus gtx480= 664dollar
--sapphire 5850 1gb= 366dollar-- --asus gtx470= 467dollar

The overclocking of Fermi still amazes me. 26% performance increase from overclock is just amazing.

One question, Wizzard: do you increase the fan speed when OCing or if auto you can clearly tell it runs faster or whatever? I ask it, because according to all the reviews that I have seen, apparently Fermi doesn't consume more nor heat up when you overclock it. Kind of weird, maybe it's way below the perf/watt curve of the architecture?

interesting the 470 definetly looks more enticing that the 480 at this point. the overclock is impressive and the fact that it matches the 480 when overclocked is even nicer. still curious to see how the fermi revision plays out and if those 32sp's come back on the 485 or whatever they call it.